AI Markers

#1 Trying to use the editor to place NPCs directly can be a big exercise in frustration.

I'm not really familiar with the "AI Marker", but what I use is a Spawn Zone, which is somewhat similar to a physical zone, but the NPC will spawn at an appropriate place within that zone based upon conditions. i.e. it will try to avoid spawning too close to or inside of other objects within that zone.

Then I associate a goal set with the spawn zone, which the NPC will use. This way I can interchange different NPCs and they'll follow the same goals in their own way.

#2 I wrote my own spawn function, similar to Quake style games. It's idea is trigger based though you can run a script at startup with the spawns listed. Player walks into trigger, AI spawn at a location. I use waypoint markers just to get the XYZ of that location.

The function is something like:

function AIPlayer::dospawn(%name, %aitype, %spawnPoint)
{
	if(isObject(%spawnPoint))
	{
  %player = new AIPlayer(%name) {
    dataBlock = %aitype;
	};
  
  MissionCleanup.add(%player);
  %player.setTransform(%spawnPoint.gettransform());
%player.schedule(%startup, think);
  return %player;

			}
			else
			{
			echo("not a legit spawnpoint - do bugger all");
			}
}

And the call is like:

//AIPlayer::dospawn(%name, %aitype, %spawnPoint)
%aiplayer = AIPlayer::dospawn(my_bot, bot_type, waypointx);

#3 @Gerald,

The AI Marker is basically just a spawn marker or icon if you will placed in the editor, which holds the spawn location. Sounds like would be the same thing as a trigger or spawn zone. So sounds like the general idea is to have something that holds the location rather than the player itself. For me I had planned on placing an attribute on the marker which represents a spawn radius and then do the check you mention. That way each NPC can be spawned in a more random fashion.
I may need to look at zones as well, to keep them from spawning outside of a room. I even considered adding second markers as alternate spawn locations and just leaving the radius to zero to provide more accurate spawning when needed.



@Steve,

Thanks for the info. I am basically doing the same span method, just without zones or triggers. I can give you a little hint as to why I am not in favor of zones (for now). Say I have a sniper or spotter that is on a hilltop. He needs to see every NPC in the range that he can actually see. the NPCs will all be actively doing whatever it is they are supposed to be doing. Another group of players will be clearing the streets. If I am using a zone or triggers, the players could be in two different zones, which means an NPC could spawn in front of my clearing players and the spotter/sniper would never see them. Sooo.. For now I am playing with different ideas on that, seems my whole level would be the zone in this case...


But you both have basically answered my problem for now. I should spawn some sort of marker or icon in the game, then when the game runs, spawn the player in that based on some sort of player location/action.


Thanks for the info.